In the video, Jacobi and Rylance, sitting in a casual living room setting surrounded by books, explained their reasons for doubting that grain merchant William Shakspere of Stratford was the author of the works that have been attributed to him. Both actors stressed the need for an extended, civilized dialogue about the authorship question. They noted that they had been subjected to cruel ad hominen attacks because of their open-mindedness about the traditional authorship theory. Jacobi and Rylance helped to launch the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt, a project of the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition, in 2007.